Hi everyone, I have been a commercial cheesemaker for the past 4 years in a really successful tiny cottage industry called Tweed Valley Whey Farmhouse Cheeses. I have finished my partnership as of this week and I am ready to share the secrets.I made from 250 - 400 litres of haloumi per week and still could not keep up with our sales.

* 10 litres of cow or goat milk. This is also really successful with shop bought milk that has been pasteurised and homoginised.* heat milk to 34C, raw milk is fine.* if using shop milk then add 2.5ml calcium chloride to 50 ml cooled boiled unclorinated water* add 3ml of rennet to 50ml cooled boiled unclorinated water.* cover container with lid and let set 30 - 40 mins* cut into 1.5cm cubes and slowly stir at first to keep curds gently moving. * slowly bring the temperature to 40C over a 30 - 40 minute stirring constantly. * If the curds are too big just cut them as you stir, this is very calming and time will pass quickly. The curd should be shrinking and looking more like scrambled egg. You can tell when the curd is ready to hoop because it bounces back to the touch, not sloppy. Bigger curds will be obvious so cut them and keep stirring.* Once you have reached 40C if your curd isn't quite ready just stir for another 5 - 10 minutes* Using a slotted spoon or small ricotta basket scoop out curd into 2 containers of equal size. I use two square hoops that fit inside each other.* Place hoops one on top of each other to press curd gently, no need to add extra pressure, swap every 15 minutes over an hour. It should be smoothing out but still porous.* Now use the whey still in the pan to make Divine ricotta out of. Add a litre of decent milk. I used a bought unhomoginised (organic is all that is available here and that cost me $3.70 which is quite cheap for a beautiful 400gm ricotta)* Over a direct flame, heat the whey to 85C, no hotter or your ricotta will taste scalded. * slowly add a good white vinegar, approx 100ml ( a little at a time but this will differ every time, you need to watch and be patient. SLOWLY move the whey around with your slotted spoon until flocculation occurs (love that word) If the whey is still a bit milky then add a tiny bit more keeping the temp at around 85C. If you add too much vinegar then the ricotta sinks and may not work.* Turn off heat and put the lid on the pot to keep warm for about 10 mins. Using a little sieve, scoop the ricotta into another sieve to drain, get to the bottom of the pan as some will sink. You should get about 400gm. Leave to cool before you package and refrigerate. Use by date in a covered container is 10 - 14 days. I never use salt.* reheat the whey to 85C and cut the haloumi curd into 2cm slices and put into the hot whey, cover and leave for 1 hour. Do not reheat once haloumi is in the whey you don't want to cook it.* drain each slice on a rack until cool. Add a 15% salt brine (approx 15gm salt to 100ml cooled boiled water) to the container and store in fridge. use by date if curd is covered by brine is 3 months.

Good luck with this recipe but you dint need luck, you cant kill haloumi with a stick! Shop milk and Calcium chloride still works but the curd breaks up a fair bit, the end result is still great.

I love haloumi cut into cubes in a soup, casserole, curry sauce, pasta sauce. You can throw it in and let it bubble for ages. puffs up and my family fight over it.

It is a very basic recipe and it has been very good to me. I started off with a starter culture but liked the basic curd better. Not boiling the whey and haloumi is the key, that will make it quite tough. The whey temp will reduce quite a bit over the hour but that is not a problem.

As a beginner 'threader' are my instructions easy to follow?

I will try and put as many recipes on the post as possible. My Chaource was amazing!

Very clear! One thing I never did was use a culture - I wondered if it would be better with one as some cheeses are. Also never made riccotta from Haloumi whey. I also use my mozarella and provalone whey but not the haloumi. Didn't even think of it.

I am always interested in new recipes to try. I have been collecting them although mostly Italian cheese for 30+ years and with the internet now they are everywhere in all kinds of laguages! SO exciting! I have been alone in this hobby since 1978 with no one to share or learn with until I found this place and all these wonderful people.

If you add culture or acid directly to bring the pH down you'll get a much better yield. Haloumi doesn't melt because the pH is kept quite high, above 6.0. That is why you cook it at 85C, to pasteurise the cheese and ensure there is no lactic acid producing bacteria or pathogens,

I would recommend boiling the whey/brine you store it in as well. This is a very easy cheese for pathogens to grow on and in.

We always used a data logger record at the point where the curd went into the hot whey until it was removed to satisfy NSW Food Safety requirements. That stage is not considered a critical control point in our Safe Food Plan. We also tested our cheese every 20 batches for salmonella, E. Coli, etc

I haven't made haloumi in a very long time and for some reason it popped into my head the other day and I have been craving fried Haloumi with garlic, onions and greens. Often wondered if is was better using a culture rather than plain rennet but I guess not. Some cheeses are.

Was going to make this today but I have 117 pounds of pork bellies in so it's bacon makin' time!

Would you believe I have never eatten bacon and halloumi at the same time? don't think I have ever eattem meat and Halloumi at the same time. Probably because the person who made it for me for the first several times was a woman from India and she didn't eat meat ever! Not in her whole life! She's the one that got me hooked on spinach or greens with it.

I don't think I have ever eatten curry either. Any place I have ever been that served it had shrimps in it and I am alergic to shell fish.

Care to share your curry recipe? I have a nice Indian grocery store nearby! Maybe I will try it I always though it had to have shellfish!

I just googled Al Brown. Seen him someplace before. Maybe one of the Sunday afternoon cooking shows.. I would have like to seen ore info on his olive oils but most of what they had posted did really interest me. Some nice lamb recipes but I would have to sell my car here to buy lamb. Sometimes they have lamb shanks not to ridiculas and they are very nice.

Wow, Australians are big lamb producers and eaters. My husband and I have a small beef herd, about 45 breeders with one bull. I would prefer lamb and chicken meat to beef.There are only a few hobby farmers here with a few sheep because we are a sub tropical climate. I went to a sheep dairy/cheesemaking factory a few months ago not far from here but I wasn't keen on the small quantities of milk given and the taste of the cheese was quite intense.

okay CLU I got my haloumi and spinach fix today! Man it was good but the rest of the household was not pleased! I just love greens and just gotta have it sometimes but these guys are tough - they do not like greens at all. Even with haloumi can you believe it?

Here's my haloumi made with rennet expired by a over a year (took 2 tablespoons!) and crummy WalMart mart milk. The walmart milk only works with Haloumi but just barely. Anything else is hard to make curds.

I just leave it in the cloth in a bowl overnight to harden. It was a bit dry but good.